Cherished Memories
by AppleSplashes
Summary: This is my first story. I hope you readers will like it. Fuji S. x OC x Tezuka K.
1. Chapter 1

_"__Meeting you was fate, becoming your friend was a choice, but falling in love with you was beyond my control."_

**Cherished Memories**

_Just how far have I walked?  
If I looked back behind me, I'll find a trail of tears.  
I was wounded, and hurt other in return._

Fuji rested, sitting on a park bench, smiling and waving like he carry no worry at the two children who were playing happily from a distance that he could see. When the two kids proceed to what ever they were doing, the smile on Fuji's face suddenly disappeared. He stared up at the looming sky above him, gazing at the sky and his mind wandering. It was a cold winter day, just like this, he could clearly remember.

_Why? Why had she left him?_

_If she had only stayed with him._

Fuji felt the tears rush to his eyes as he tried his best not to let them fall.

_Yes, exactly two years ago._

_It had already been two years._

_**(FLASHBACK)**_

_**14 years ago…**_

**Chapter One: Seigaku Female Tennis Team**

- September 2011 -

It was a hot Friday afternoon, dismissal at Seishun Gakuen. Some students head to their houses already. Some hang-out with their friends and go to different shopping centers. Some are still at school to do or finish their projects. While at the tennis courts, the male tennis club coach, Ryuzaki Sumire was telling them an announcement before they start training.

"Coach Morii of female tennis club just retired. So the schools principal told me that they (SFTRs) will have to practice with you until they have a new one which I believe will take them a year or so to find someone as good like her."

Suddenly, seven girls entered the tennis courts, wearing their jerseys.

"But if they will join us, we'll be too crowded. We only have four courts to use." Momo protested.

"Don't worry. The principal gave me the permission to use the other four courts." she said pointing to the other courts, beside the courts they usually use.

Everybody was surprised to find out that they are going to train with someone else especially with them.

"Please introduce yourselves."

"Oshikubo Chiya. 15, sophomore."

"Oshikubo Noyie. 15, sophomore."

"Tezuka Kunizuki. 15, sophomore."

"Matsumoto Yui. 16, senior."

"Nanami Mikuru. 16, senior."

"Hanazawa Nia. 16, senior."

"Souma Kim. 16 senior."

Inui's eyeglasses glinted. "Souma, Kim. SFTTs vice-captain. Last year's _. If there is Yukimura, the 'DEMIGOD', Souma-san will be the 'DEMIGODDESS'. Zero lose."

"Scary, nyaa~! Eiji exclaimed.

Kim glared at him that gave him shivers down his spine.

"But they're only seven." Kaidoh noticed.

Then they heard someone playing at the tennis courts. It was Sakuno and a girl with brown shiny hair, brown eyes and pinkish white cheeks. You could say she is tall from a far. Her height maybe is between 5'1 to 5'4.

_Preeep!_

The two girls heard the loud whistle that made them stop whatever they are doing. They hurriedly ran out of the courts and went to the coach.

"We are sorry grandma." They said.

"Grandma?" Oishi clarified.

"Please introduce yourself to them Megumi" their coach said.

"Hai! Hanazono Megumi. 16, senior. Nice to meet you all." she smiled.

All of a sudden, Tezuka Kunimitsu and Fuji Syusuke had their attention to her. _Me-gu-mi._ the words echoed them.

Hanazono Megumi is the captain of the SFTT. She is known as 'The Dark Star' of her team and even of the school. She is the miracle maker, her every word, the way she think and even the way she acts; very amazing, especially every time she play tennis. Dark, because of the way she plays tennis when she gets excited or happy about the game; she hurts, she curses and she will make sure that you'll suffer beneath the dirt for the rest of their lives. Like Echizen, she also competes with other tennis players around the world and even represents Seishun Gakuen in some tournaments in Japan. She has seven consecutive wins and one of those includes Wimbledon.

"Mada Mada Dane"

"Cool!"

"How come I don't see you in school?" Kawamura asked.

"I was gone 4 months ago. I was asked to represent our school to compete in Osaka. So I put Kim in charge of everything while I'm gone. I'm so glad they won the nationals against Rikkai Dai."

"No!" Yui shouted. "We won the nationals". She smiled at her.

"SFTT are also called the 'Queen of all Queens'. No one has ever beaten them, ever. Pretty amazing isn't it?" Inui added.

"I heard that you also won the national tournament against them too." Nia said.

"Congratulations! From all of us." They all smiled.

"Then this might be a good chance that we got to practice with you. We can show and share each others skills." Oishi said.

"I agree with you!" Kunizuki said who was clinging to her captain.

"So that is all. We shall proceed now to practices. Be ready in two minutes." Their coach said.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter Two: The Training Begins**

Everybody was preparing before they start. They are all participating as they do the warm-ups especially the girls who don't want to be a burden to the others. After they finish, they listen to Inui's instruction before they start their jogging outside the courts.

"You have to finish each lap before one minute. Anyone who fails should drink this." Inui smirked and showed to them his new and improved Inui Juice. "_"

"What is that?" Noyie asked.

"You'll be a lot happier if you don't find out." Oishi told her.

Megumi suddenly called her teammates for a little discussion. They form a small circle and she discussed something to them. She showed them a whistle. Then they retreated and go to their designated places in their line.

After a while, they were all ready. They were lined-up then they had started jogging around outside the tennis court. Everybody was fast especially the boys who know the 'effect' they might get from the evil witches apple.

They were on to their 5th lap. All the girls were one meter apart and 2 meters back from the boys. "I can't believe they are that slow." Momoshiro whispered to Ryoma who didn't react about it. When Inui shouted that it's the 6th lap, they heard a loud whistle. Then suddenly the girl, who was at the back which was Noyie, ran as fast as she can to go to the first place who was Kunimitsu. 15 seconds past, another loud whistle was heard. This time, Yui was the one who ran to reach the first place. The same thing goes on. Next were Kunizuki, Chiya, Mikuru, Nia and Kim who was the fastest.

The boys, who were amazed by the thing that just happened, also ran as fast as they could to catch up with the others, for they don't want to be overcome by someone else especially by girls. Who knew they were these fast?

"8th lap!"

Megumi was the last girl in the line. Oishi who was the man in front of her looked at her from the back. He noticed a whistle hanging on her neck. Megumi then went to her right side ran very fast, faster then the way Kim ran. She was just like a wind caressing the hair of the persons she passes.

"Last lap!"

Megumi suddenly slowed down and looked at Kunimitsu, she smiled to him. Then she continues to run again the usual to reach the first place. A smile also appeared on his face but someone saw it, guess who? Inui fixed his eyeglasses. _That is weird. I better write that information._ He scribbled unto his notebook as he thought.

At the end of the jogging, everybody was panting. It was obvious on their faces that they're all tired.

"What is their time?" their coach asked to Inui.

"The first five laps were almost the same; 58.6 seconds; 58.8 seconds; 58.7 seconds; 59.3 seconds and 58.7 seconds," he paused "When the girls started to do sprinting, every whistle of their captain, there were a lot of changes in the time: 50.3 second; 50.1 seconds; 49.7 seconds; 47.8 seconds and 44.7 seconds."

"They were that fast?" Momoshiro this time almost looked like a person who saw a ghost in amusement.

"Like you were saying a while ago that 'they were these slow?' " Ryoma murmured.

Somewhere at the corner, Eiji talked to his best friend about Megumi.

"Fujiko, why did Megumi-Chan look at Tezuka-buchou? Is there something between the of them?"

"Actually, Megumi…. Megumi…. Megumi…. uhhhh…."

"Megumi? Megumi? Megumi? What? Tell me!"

"If you promise me not to tell the others."

"Yes! Of course! I promise!"

"It's not an issue anymore I guess, but when we are still little, Megumi once shared to me that she had a crush on Tezuka. Though it's been so many years, I believe that she still got those feelings for him. I know Megumi very well for we are always together back then."

"That's a new information." Inui appeared to them.

"Inui! Please don't tell the others. Eiji too." Fuji begged them.

Both of them nodded in confirmation. Fuji who has always trusted them, believed in them.

- 5:00 pm -

"I hope to see more of all of you. That's all. Dismissed." Their coach said to them and she left with Sakuno. All the boys proceed to their clubroom to change their clothes.

"Captain! Megumi!" all the girls hugged her.

Megumi, who was surprised hugged them back, she smiled.

"It's so nice to see you all again."

"So, did you won?" Yui asked her.

Megumi searched for something on her bag, and then she brought out a gold shinny medal with a red ribbon on it.

"Yeah. She did won….again." Yui said and there was laughter in the atmosphere.


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter Three: Birthday Surprise**

- October 2 (Thursday), 6: 50 am -

Megumi waited for Kim at the school entrance. After a few minutes, she arrived, waving and smiling at her.

"Good Morning Kim!" Maui said with a smile on her face.

"Good morning, listen Megumi, when the bell rings, will you enter the room after 5 minutes?"

"Sure. But why?"

"It's a surprise" she smiled.

So the bell rang and Megumi still wait in front of the school's entrance. She was sad that she thought that Kim might have forgotten what day it is. Getting curious already, she looked at her wrist watch to check if it's already 5 minutes. _Surprise huh? _She thought. She looked at her watch again and the time is over already. She made her way to her classroom, she opened the door and a smile appeared on her face.

"Happy Birthday Megumi!" her classmates greeted her.

"Thank you! But, how did you know?"

"Kim told us" one of her classmates said.

"Kim?"

"Megumi! Happy Birthday!" she hugged her.

Megumi's day was great. She received gifts from her friends and many students greeted her.

After dismissal, she went to the tennis court and saw no one's there. She thought that there are no practices so she head home early.

At her house; she was surprised, all the Seigaku tennis club members were there! They greeted her and gave them their gifts for her. "Gifts? For me? Thank you!"

Megumi received a lot of gifts from them. Eiji gave her a blue headband, a pen from Momoshiro, a water bottle from Inui, a stuffed toy from Kim and a 150 pieces of different kinds of Japanese foods like maki, sushi and many more from Oishi, Kaidoh, Ryoma Sakuno and the other SFTT. Of course this wouldn't be possible without the help of Takashi.

Tezuka said nothing and hand her a bouquet of roses. Megumi turns around and blushed. "Thank You…"

Inui adjusted his eye glasses and said: "Possibility for love to bloom: 85%"

Fuji opened his eyes in surprise. Afterwards, he closed it again and smiles the usual. He gave his present.

"C-Camera? I won't take this. It's too expensive. It's too….You Know…." She saw her friend sadness. "Well, there's nothing more we can't do. We can't just return it to the shop you bought it. So, I'm going to take it." She smiled.

The usual smile was seen in his face again. "I hope you like it"

"I do, thank you Fuji" she hugged him.

"I'm your friend, just call me Syusuke"

"Syusuke…" she smiled.

_Just a FRIEND eh?_ Inui thought.


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4: Spin the Bottle**

After Megumi had opened her presents, they all eat the food her friends made. They chatted and laugh the whole time. The whole day was fun. A few moments past they decided to play a game.

"What about tongue twister? And Punishment!" Chiya suggested.

"It's hard" Taka said.

"Marco polo?" Oishi said.

"We can't play that. The place is too small. It will be easy for the IT." Kaidoh said.

"Well," Fuji suggested with a smirk, "we could always play Spin the Bottle."

"Isn't that a girls' game?" Momo protested. "I won't play anything like that, I won't!"

"Why would it be a girls' game?" Fuji asked, appearing confused. "Eiji and I have played it countless times. You just sit in a circle, spin the bottle and whoever it points at have to either answer a question or complete a dare the others assign to them. I don't see what's so girly about that. And besides, they will be joining us." He looked at the girls.

"Ohhh, no!" Eiji protested. "Fuji always comes up with weird dares like 'kiss the one sitting on your right side' and such! Momoshiro is on my right side and I don't want to kiss him!"

"How about a simple question and answer?" Oishi tried to calm them.

After a moment the others all agreed to this idea. Just as they had found an empty water bottle in Fuji's bag, however, Inui chose to draw his own water bottle as well.

"I made this last night," he said ominously.

"Inui's Super Truth Juice. Anybody who does not answer the question or is caught lying will have to drink this."

"Well," Fuji said, the others apparently too terrified – or, in some cases, too indifferent – to speak, "it seems this will be a game of absolute truth, then..."

After settling a few more details, they finally got to start; all sitting in a circle around the bottle which Oishi set spinning. Everybody watched more or less intently as the spinning bottle slowed down bit by bit, finally stopping to point at one of them.

"It's Tezuka!" Eiji sang cheerfully. "So, do you like somebody, Tezuka? Come on, tell us!" he pleaded, bouncing. The only response they got was a nod. However, the blush that spread over his cheeks spoke volumes about the answer.

Inui's glasses glinted. "There is 83% chance that Tezuka indeed likes somebody," he announced while rapidly writing in his notebook. "The other 17% chance is that he is simply embarrassed by the question, but his expression is a tad too closed to give that any higher chance."

"I guess Inui would know, wouldn't he?" Fuji asked, smiling. "Too bad we can't simply ask who it is."

"Too bad indeed." Inui adjusted his glasses. "We shall just try to guess, I suppose." His expression was quite a bit more interested than it had been before.

Fuji reached out to spin the bottle only to have his hand swatted away by Eiji before he could touch it.

"No, no, no, we can't have that," Eiji said with a grin. "Someone like Fuji could easily spin the bottle whichever way he wanted, with his spin control!"

"That's a good point, Eiji-senpai, a very good point indeed," Momo said, grinning as well. "But you can't spin it either. You could stop it too fast for us to see, and you can't do that. You just can't."

"Unfair!" Eiji exclaimed. "I'm not that fast, Momo!"

"Now, now, let's stop," Mikuru hastened to calm them. "I'll spin the bottle, okay? Do you trust me to do it?"

Nobody saw anything wrong with Mikuru spinning. Actually, as Fuji pointed out, she, Oishi, Takashi, and Nia were probably the only ones who absolutely wouldn't cheat in any way. Several protests were voiced at this, everybody proclaiming their trustworthiness. Nevertheless, Mikuru was the one who spun the bottle in the end.

As the bottle slowed down and finally stopped, they all stared at it. Then they turned to look at the unfortunate one whom the Bottle of Doom had chosen to point at.

Tezuka adjusted his eye glasses for the bottle has chosen him again.

"So, does the one you like play tennis?" Fuji enquired. Others nodded in agreement, Inui most eagerly.

"Yes"

"Who could it be? It's hard to think" Eiji murmured. "Spin it again, Mikuru! I want to know more!"

Mikuru obediently spun the bottle. Eiji seemed slightly confused as though he couldn't comprehend the fact he had got chosen.

"Oh, Eiji-senpai!" Momo cackled. "We must think of something good to ask you, we simply must!"

"Actually, I have a question for him." Everyone turned to look at Nia. "Can you tell me, Eiji, exactly how long have you and Kim been dating?"

"Ahem." Megumi coughed.

"That's a new information." Inui scribbled to his notebook.

"What?!" Momo was not the only one who seemed shocked at the question. Even Echizen's eyes widened before he tugged his cap down to conceal his expression. Eiji, on the other hand, didn't seem as much shocked as he was thoughtful. "Well... I think it was some time 3 weeks after Kim joined the team that we started going out together. Right, Kim?"

It wasn't until now that the happy couple noticed the others' shock. Eiji blinked. "Hey guys, why those faces?" he asked, getting a bit nervous. "Don't tell me…don't tell me you didn't know?"

"How could we have known?" Yui asked dryly. "It's not like you've told us or anything."

"Well, it seems you are accepted at least, Eiji, Kim," Fuji said calmly. "Although I'm a bit disappointed you didn't tell even me, Eiji. Am I not your best friend?" His eyes opened threateningly.

"But Fujiko, I thought you knew!" Eiji protested. "You always know everything anyway!"

"Well, you are forgiven." The eyes were closed again, and Fuji's smile became the usual pleasant one instead of threatening. "Do spin the bottle, then, Mikuru!"

"That bottle has a grudge against the Captain" Yui said.

"Maybe it's haunted!" Momo laughed.

"Now, now, it's question time again," Fuji said. "The one you like Tezuka, do we know her? Does she have brown hair?"

"Not that kind of question, Fuji!" Eiji protested. "Why don't you just ask who it is? I want to know!"

"You didn't necessarily have to answer," Inui reminded him while furiously scribbling something in his notebook. "If, however, we were to ask Tezuka a direct question, there is a 97.8% chance he wouldn't answer." "Well, Tezuka?" Tezuka was careful not to look at anyone.

"Yes" he muttered.

"Yay!" Eiji exclaimed. "Now, who do we know who have brown hair and plays tennis?"

"Let's just spin the bottle again," Takashi suggested. "You'll trust me to do it, won't you?"

"You've been quiet, Megumi," Fuji pointed out as they watched the spinning bottle. "Any particular reason?" but she didn't answer.

Tezuka was getting rather pale now, glaring warily at the bottle. Inui smirked. "Interesting. The chance that the bottle would land on Tezuka four times out of five is merely 80%. Maybe it is indeed possessed?"

"Maybe it just wants to make me happy, Nyaa!" Eiji giggled. "Does she study here Tezuka?"

"I don't want to speak about it anymore."

Silence.

"You're being too rude. Don't worry; we will keep it as a secret." Her little sister said.

Kunimitsu, saw that their sincere through their eyes. Besides, he doesn't want to ruin the fun so he continued. "Yes. She does study here."

"So…it could be Sakuno, Tomoko, Nia and…."

The silence killed the laughter around the room. Everyone's eyes turned to Megumi.

"Umm. Is there anything wrong?" Megumi was unfamiliar with their serious look on her. She wasn't participating so she has no idea about what is happening on their game.

They watch Mikuru spin the bottle and saw it has chosen Megumi. "Birthday Girl!" Momo said.

"Well then. So Megumi, are you the girl Tezuka is saying?" Fuji asked, his eyes opened.

"No" she bowed her head.

"I believe she is lying." Noyie said.

"Tell us the truth Megumi or you'll drink this" Inui said and showed her the glass of Inui's Super Truth Juice. Megumi got scared. So she cried and ran away to their garden. "You made the girl cry!" Oishi said. Fuji followed her.


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5: Under the Moon**

It was already 7:30pm and the moon was full. Megumi sat under the big tree and stared at it. "Megumi, are you ok?" Fuji went to her and sits beside her. She wiped her tears, smiled, and nodded. "I'm sorry I didn't drink the juice" she said.

"That's fine. Nobody wants to drink that anyways." "So, you and Tezuka are together now?"

"Yeah, sorry"

"No worries. But, if they knew this, I'm sure they'll be surprise." _Specially me…_

"Anything wrong Fuji-sempai?"

"The moon and star…its beautiful isn't?"

"Yes they are…" she smiled "You know…this is the first time I celebrated my birthday without my parents…they're the only family I got" tears pour out in her eyes again. "I miss them…" suddenly she laughed, wiping out her tears. "I'm sorry."

Yes, Fuji remembered her parents died because of a car accident when she was still 7 years old. "But, you got us…we're you're friends right…your family too" he smiled. Megumi looked at him and smiled back.

"You're right…you're my friend…my family…" she smiled and looked at the star again.

"I must go now, it's getting late. Happy Birthday again, Megumi." He kissed her cheeks and left.

"Uh…uh…thank you…"


End file.
